Court rejects Menendez recall

Friday, November 19, 2010

TRENTON - A tea-party group's effort to recall U.S.
Sen. Robert Menendez was thwarted by the New Jersey Supreme
Court yesterday, when the court ruled that a recall is not
allowed by the U.S. Constitution.

RoseAnn Salanitri, an organizer of the effort to recall
the Democrat, said she plans to appeal yesterday's
ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. A victory for her there,
she said, could aid other fledgling movements to recall
senators nationwide.

But in a 4-2 ruling yesterday, New Jersey's top court
said the U.S. Constitution doesn't allow for senators
to be recalled, even though the state's constitution
does.

"The historical record leads to but one conclusion:
the Framers rejected a recall provision and denied the
states the power to recall U.S. Senators," Chief
Justice Stuart Rabner wrote in the majority opinion.

The group seeking to recall Menendez says their problem
with him is simple: They disagree with his liberal views,
including his support for the health insurance overhaul
passed by Congress this year. He hasn't been embroiled
in any particular scandals, or voted differently than he
said he was when he was elected in 2006.

"The New Jersey Supreme Court today ruled that this
fringe effort to recall a leader in the fight against
special interests is definitively unconstitutional,"
Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi said in a written
statement yesterday. "It is a resounding victory
against the tea party's Washington-based right-wing
corporate backers, who are waging economic war on the middle
class."

Menendez will be up for re-election in November 2012.

Even if the recall effort would have been allowed by the
court, it would have been cumbersome to get a recall on the
ballot. Under New Jersey law, it would have taken about 1.3
million signatures to get the effort to a ballot.